The clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas, built by Donald McKay of Boston in 1853, supposedly made 22 knots on a broad reach while traveling from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn. For a century, this was the fastest speed *ever* made by a commercial sailing ship. How fast is that? Here, the racing yacht Formidable 3 made just over that under sail in the rough North Sea. The Sovereign was the largest merchant ship of her time: 252 feet long, 46 feet wide, and weighed about 2,400 tons. Her mainmast towered over 13 stories in the air. Steamships couldnt match the speed of the sailing clippers until the end of the 19th century...
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 19:31:38 +0000
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